ACTION ALERT: Hiroshima-Nagasaki Remembrance Events Nationwide

August 8, 2008

August 6th and 9th will mark the 63rd anniversaries of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Expanding the traditional anniversary period will allow more opportunities for groups to plan and organize events focusing on all aspects of the nuclear issue. Activities are scheduled across the country, from the Livermore nuclear weapons lab in California to Washington DC. For a complete list of events, check the Nuclear Free Future Web site.

United for Peace and Justice has declared August “Nuclear-Free Future Month.” The specter of nuclear weapons in the hands of “rogue” states has become one of top U.S. excuses for waging war, yet the United States continues to rely on the threatened first use of nuclear weapons as the cornerstone of its national security policy. We call on groups to take action and raise awareness about the ever-increasing threat from nuclear weapons and the environmental and proliferation dangers posed by the global nuclear power “renaissance.”

Through popular education, video screenings, art exhibits, protests, vigils and more, we are working to put nuclear issues on the political agenda of the 2008 Presidential and Congressional elections and to build stronger ties between the nuclear abolition, anti-war, and climate justice movements. We are working in solidarity with these fundamentally connected movements to create a safe, just future.

August 6th and 9th will mark the 63rd anniversaries of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Expanding the traditional anniversary period will allow more opportunities for groups to plan and organize events focusing on all aspects of the nuclear issue. We seek to reach a broad public and to inspire more people to participate in a wide variety of antinuclear activities, including efforts to encourage the Presidential candidates to make both the abolition of nuclear weapons and immediate steps to move in that direction a central campaign priority, as we demand clean, sustainable, non-nuclear energy alternatives.

Our main vehicle for coordinating activities and disseminating information will be the new www.nuclearfreefuture.org website where you will find a variety of action ideas and educational resources. We encourage you to post your group’s planned activities to the calendar you will find there. Please help us spread the word! On the 63rd anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki, August 9th, 2008

Please join us this Saturday, Aug. 9th, at the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab, corner of Vasco Rd. and Patterson Pass Rd., Livermore. Beginning at 10:30 am, walk through the °ßnuclear maze,°® a huge structure created to teach about the inextricable link between nuclear weapons and nuclear power and the direct impacts of the nuclear fuel cycle on local communities. Our Keynote speaker will be Rev. Nabuaki Hanaoka, a survivor of the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki. Music by Kaylah Marin.

On the eve of the 63rd anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Oakland City Council President Pro Tem Jean Quan and Western States Legal Foundation cordially invite you to view a very special exhibit provided by the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation

WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM, PAX CHRISTI and BURLINGTON FRIENDS MEETING are co-sponsoring the events with others expected to take part.

This year is the 40th anniversary of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT). Created in 1978 to mandate the reduction and eventual elimination of nuclear weapons by the Big Five, and the removal of incentives to obtain nuclear weapons by the rest of the world (by offering them nuclear power), this treaty is fraying badly at the seams, as we know. It is especially important this year to increase public awareness of this treaty by lifting up people's awareness of the continued threat and horror of nuclear weapons.

Below is an outline of events that stretch from the 6th to the 9th. Many volunteers will be needed.

1) WILPF plans to table on Church Street, probably starting before August 6. WILPF will gather signatures for a petition calling on Congress to declare August 6 Nuclear Weapons Disarmament Day. They also need people to teach others visiting the table how to fold paper cranes.

2) August 6th Mayor Bob Kiss will declare August 6th Nuclear Disarmament Day, and speak out about the issue at noon from the steps of City Hall. The Taiko Drummers are invited to perform. They will invite other speakers and may create a shadow project ( Outline bodies on black plastic: this was a very successful project when they did it a few years ago. The resulting work was hung from the roof of the Firehouse Gallery).

3) August 9th. Welcome the Hiroshima/Nagasaki walkers to town.

11 am: Join Pax Christi at the Bell Tower on Cherry Street to commemorate the dropping of the bomb on Nagasaki. Enjoy lunch on the grass or in the Peace and Justice Center and view the video Voices from Chernobyl. This is a tape made from the reader's theater play created by Spencer Smith and performed in Burlington last January. Check out the impressive Vermont Yankee focussed website at http://www.voicesfromchernobyl.net/ ). Also other tapes might be presented.

6 pm. Potluck at the Burlington Friends Meeting. Discussion of issues and possible talk by Doreen Kraft of Burlington City Arts' year long project on Wind Power and the landscape. Alternatives to nuclear power need to be explored.

After the conclusion of the events WILPF members will deliver the signed petitions to Senators Patrick Leahy and Bernard Sanders. The national WILPF office has also decided to promote the petitions and deliver them to Congress in Washington D.C. during the week of September 15.